Golfing brothers put on traveling shoes

If you are searching for the Werenski brothers these days, try criss-crossing the country – but don’t try South Hadley.

Better yet, try the amateur golf rankings.

And look high.

Richy Werenski, 18, and Mickey Werenski, 16, have fast become two of the top amateur golfers in the country and the world.

Richy, a college freshman at Georgia Tech, is ranked No. 1 in Massachusetts, 65th in the U.S. and now 161st in the world.

“Richy hates to lose, he has been an incredible competitor all his life,” father Mike Werenski said. “He has such a burning desire to succeed.

“And Mickey is the opposite. He’s had raw talent since he was real little. He is so easy-going, he’s best friends with everyone he plays with on a golf course.”

Mickey, a sophomore at Hank Haney International Junior Golf Academy in Hilton Head, S.C., is ranked eighth in the world in the Class of 2013 and ranked 140 among international juniors.

Mike is traveling this week with Richy, who opens play Monday at the U.S. Amateur at Chambers Bay at University Park in Washington State.

“It’s the highlight of my season, just to make it there, and it has been a pretty good summer for me,” said Richy Werenski, who qualified after playing his last 12 holes at 6 under in a 36-hole qualifier earlier this month.

Richy posted eight top 25 finishes during his first summer competing in men’s amateur tournaments. He was fourth at the Players Amateur and sixth, with a good chance to win, at the New England Amateur to name a few.

Even the “off-weeks” aren’t too shabby.

“I guess it’s reassuring when I struggle and I can still finish pretty high,” Richy Werenski said of last week’s Cardinal Amateur (14th place) and last month’s Ouimet Memorial (ninth).

Werenski graduated high school in December, a semester early from Hank Haney IJGA, and was a red-shirt at Division I Georgia Tech during the spring semester.

Classes start Monday, the opening day of Werenski’s second U.S. Amateur.

“The golf course is supposed to be unreal, at 7,800 yards,” Werenski said. “It’s a links style course .¤.¤. windy, rainy and I think one tree of the course. It’s going to be a great experience.”

Werenski missed the cut to match play by two strokes last year, and he will return to Georgia Tech after the championship.

“I am ready to go,” Werenski said. “Every guy on that team is so solid, but it is set up so that you can qualify to play for the team, at each tournament. So I have control over the situation.”

As well as Richy has fared, Mickey may already be farther advanced than Richy was at age 16.

“Mickey is being heavily recruited (by Division I colleges), and we know in part that’s because the Werenski name has really been put out there because of Richy,” Mike Werenski said.

Mickey was the International Junior Golf Tour’s Player of the Year in the age 16-19 division, during the academic year 2009-10. At age 16, he won six of nine tournaments, and holds exempt status for American Junior Golf Association tournament for the rest of 2010 and 2011.

Highlights of his summer season included an eighth seed and one match play victory at the Massachusetts Amateur and a fourth place finish at the Ouimet.

“The month of July was all (men’s) amateur tournaments,” Mickey said. “The competition is much tougher than the junior (schedule).”

Last week, he finished fourth at an AJGA tournament near Oklahoma State, which is No. 1 on his list of colleges.

“OSU is No. 1. Georgia Tech is 2 and Texas A & M is third,” said Mickey, who by design is repeating his sophomore year of high school. “I can commit (verbally) as soon as I want, but there is a rule starting in January saying that you have to wait until July of your junior year. I’d like to have the chance to commit before then (January).”

Off the course, Richy and Mickey each work with IJGA head instructor Matt Fields, as well as Gale Peterson, one of “America’s 50 Greatest Teachers” according to Golf Digest. They have typically worked with Haney, at least once a month at IJGA.

“They have a swing coach, a putting coach, a mental coach and fitness coach,” Mike Werenski said. “And you really have to have that, to compete at this level.”

Mike Werenski was once a top regional amateur and former club pro for eight years, and mom Sue (Marion) went to Rollins College on a golf scholarship. The family lives across the street, “a driver and a wedge” from Orchards Golf Club, where Sue was once a scratch golfer.

“Neither of us plays much any more, we are always traveling or at a tournament somewhere,” Mike Werenski said. “I own my own insurance company and Sue is a teacher, so we have some flexibility to travel. “

And the financial logistics?

“You can’t even imagine,” Mike Werenski said of meals, hotels, flights. “But it’s been so much fun. We are incredibly proud of everything they have accomplished.”